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Unleashing the Soul of Money: Find Sufficiency, Freedom, And Purpose -Through Your Relationship With Money
Imagine feeling completely at peace about your money'whether you're earning it, spending it, saving it, or using it to help others. On Unleashing the Soul of Money, world-renowned fund-raiser and ?money mentor? Lynne Twist shares from her thirty years of global research into happiness and money to reveal a surprising that the size of your paycheck has little to do with fulfillment'and everything to do with getting your money aligned with your deepest commitments, values, and desires. In this workshop, listeners uncover the insights about their own relationship with money, and learn how make the transformation to a life of sufficiency, contentment, and benefit to others in the world.
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First published April 30, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
October 6, 2021
Move over Marie Kondo, there’s a new person in town to make you feel guilty of your possessions! Haha but honestly I still really like this book because it’s another that would transform our society as a whole if everyone read it and took from it what resonated with them. I personally loved half of this book, sections 1 and 3. There were so many large nuggets of wisdom, like how money flows like water and the meaning behind the money we use. I’m not incredibly into the meditation segments of 2 and 4, but there is nothing inherently wrong with them. Overall I’ve changed the way I look at money and how I intend to use it.
January 28, 2021
If you’re living in a world where money=success, and more=better, you’ll benefit from listening to this once a year, just to broaden your perspective a little and give yourself space to breathe.
To the best of my knowledge, this is an audio, guided meditation, and lasts about 3h.
The author explores "Three Toxic Myths About Money":
1. There is not enough.
2. More is better.
3. That's just the way it is.
I liked that it was short and informal. I assume her book must have more practical tips, in depth examples, etc.
The reflective exercises are good and probably important for everyone on this planet, although it feels more adequate for people who HAVE MONEY and somehow feel like they NEED MORE.
Some of her points are obvious but so important to think about:
- Once you acknowledge you have “enough”, your life will become better
- Nowadays, leading a comfortable does not have to come at the expense of others
- Money is not more important than relationships
To the best of my knowledge, this is an audio, guided meditation, and lasts about 3h.
The author explores "Three Toxic Myths About Money":
1. There is not enough.
2. More is better.
3. That's just the way it is.
I liked that it was short and informal. I assume her book must have more practical tips, in depth examples, etc.
The reflective exercises are good and probably important for everyone on this planet, although it feels more adequate for people who HAVE MONEY and somehow feel like they NEED MORE.
Some of her points are obvious but so important to think about:
- Once you acknowledge you have “enough”, your life will become better
- Nowadays, leading a comfortable does not have to come at the expense of others
- Money is not more important than relationships
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2020
Audio.
I've long been fascinated by fundraising - I have a master's degree in it - and am always interested in conversations about scarcity and enough and abundance, finding contentedness in what we have. However, most of these conversations (with books and actual people) happen within a sacred realm - how it applies to people in the Church, with a biblical foundation, with people who feel a holy responsibility to make change in the world with their resources.
This book is refreshing because it approaches the same themes, but comes at it from a wholly secular perspective. And yet it arrives at many of the same conclusions. How can we become more satisfied, content? How can we view what we have as abundance (because to most of the world, it is)? What are the cultural inputs that have shaped our fears and desires and decisions about what we have?
This book felt like sitting in a workshop because it was question driven and left time for the listener to really process personal philosophies and what drives motivations.
This book isn't one to give answers, but asks good questions.
I've long been fascinated by fundraising - I have a master's degree in it - and am always interested in conversations about scarcity and enough and abundance, finding contentedness in what we have. However, most of these conversations (with books and actual people) happen within a sacred realm - how it applies to people in the Church, with a biblical foundation, with people who feel a holy responsibility to make change in the world with their resources.
This book is refreshing because it approaches the same themes, but comes at it from a wholly secular perspective. And yet it arrives at many of the same conclusions. How can we become more satisfied, content? How can we view what we have as abundance (because to most of the world, it is)? What are the cultural inputs that have shaped our fears and desires and decisions about what we have?
This book felt like sitting in a workshop because it was question driven and left time for the listener to really process personal philosophies and what drives motivations.
This book isn't one to give answers, but asks good questions.
March 10, 2019
I felt like it was good with ideas about money, but I would have preferred a little more practical advice.
December 11, 2023
This was a great listen. I was pleasantly surprised.
My takeaways...
#1.
Money has some meaning we all assign to it.
Some have assigned money more value than it is, and others less.
For me, money is the meaning of freedom of choice. The more I have, the more choices I can make regarding opportunities and the ability to help my family, friends, and others financially.
#2. The lie of scarcity.
Three toxic myths
--There is not always enough to go around - not enough time, money, sleep, energy, etc. - This myth runs a lot of our lives from the moment we wake up to the end of the day when we feel we didn't do enough.
--More is better -This is bad as we have too many things that don't serve us. Think of a hoarder who has too much in their place, and you cannot appreciate what you currently have. An unending quest for more becomes too much and leads to greed. Consumer culture is endless, and we feed into this vicious cycle of constantly needing more.
-- "It is just the way that it is." (Worst). When we accept things as they are, we do not attempt to change anything.
#3. Release.
Forgiveness is the most difficult and most powerful form of love- forgiveness is the doorway to freedom with money.
Forgive all your money mistakes.
Forgive yourself for the negative money mindset.
Forgive yourself for the choices that got you where you are if that is not where you should be.
I forgive myself.
After listening to this book, I dared to forgive myself for all my past money mistakes.
#4. What you appreciate — appreciates.
Having gratitude and appreciation for where you are and what you have makes everything enough.
#5. Money is like water.
It is neutral - we can use our money to express the highest commitment of our soul.
Money is a conduit.
Current=currency
The richness of life doesn’t come from money. It is a tool that can deepen our life experience if we use it that way.
My favorite quote from this book:
I asked for strength, and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for wisdom, and God gave me problems to learn to solve.
I asked for prosperity, and God gave me a brain and brawn to work.
I asked for courage, and God gave me dangers to overcome.
I asked for love, and God gave me people to help.
I asked for favors, and God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted. I received everything I needed.
— Hazrat Inayat Khan
Practices recommended by the author:
1- Declutter your life. Let go of what you don't need. Do this often.
2- Dont buy anything new unless you let something go first.
3- Practice appreciation. Speak appreciatively for the life you live. Share appreciation for your life. When conversations go towards scarcity, shift the conversations to sufficiency, prosperity, and fulfillment by appreciating someone or something.
4- When you give gifts, make sure they are intangibles. (ex: Quality time together)
5- Begin every meal with an appreciation of where it came from and how it was made. Pay attention to the moment you have enough when your hunger is fulfilled.
6- Be conscious of what you are voting for with your money. Go through Credit card statements and bank accounts. Pay attention to your money and how you spend, invest, earn sane, and contribute it.
Last takeaway
The open hand is the posture for giving and receiving, and the closed hand is one of lack and holding on.
My takeaways...
#1.
Money has some meaning we all assign to it.
Some have assigned money more value than it is, and others less.
For me, money is the meaning of freedom of choice. The more I have, the more choices I can make regarding opportunities and the ability to help my family, friends, and others financially.
#2. The lie of scarcity.
Three toxic myths
--There is not always enough to go around - not enough time, money, sleep, energy, etc. - This myth runs a lot of our lives from the moment we wake up to the end of the day when we feel we didn't do enough.
--More is better -This is bad as we have too many things that don't serve us. Think of a hoarder who has too much in their place, and you cannot appreciate what you currently have. An unending quest for more becomes too much and leads to greed. Consumer culture is endless, and we feed into this vicious cycle of constantly needing more.
-- "It is just the way that it is." (Worst). When we accept things as they are, we do not attempt to change anything.
#3. Release.
Forgiveness is the most difficult and most powerful form of love- forgiveness is the doorway to freedom with money.
Forgive all your money mistakes.
Forgive yourself for the negative money mindset.
Forgive yourself for the choices that got you where you are if that is not where you should be.
I forgive myself.
After listening to this book, I dared to forgive myself for all my past money mistakes.
#4. What you appreciate — appreciates.
Having gratitude and appreciation for where you are and what you have makes everything enough.
#5. Money is like water.
It is neutral - we can use our money to express the highest commitment of our soul.
Money is a conduit.
Current=currency
The richness of life doesn’t come from money. It is a tool that can deepen our life experience if we use it that way.
My favorite quote from this book:
I asked for strength, and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for wisdom, and God gave me problems to learn to solve.
I asked for prosperity, and God gave me a brain and brawn to work.
I asked for courage, and God gave me dangers to overcome.
I asked for love, and God gave me people to help.
I asked for favors, and God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted. I received everything I needed.
— Hazrat Inayat Khan
Practices recommended by the author:
1- Declutter your life. Let go of what you don't need. Do this often.
2- Dont buy anything new unless you let something go first.
3- Practice appreciation. Speak appreciatively for the life you live. Share appreciation for your life. When conversations go towards scarcity, shift the conversations to sufficiency, prosperity, and fulfillment by appreciating someone or something.
4- When you give gifts, make sure they are intangibles. (ex: Quality time together)
5- Begin every meal with an appreciation of where it came from and how it was made. Pay attention to the moment you have enough when your hunger is fulfilled.
6- Be conscious of what you are voting for with your money. Go through Credit card statements and bank accounts. Pay attention to your money and how you spend, invest, earn sane, and contribute it.
Last takeaway
The open hand is the posture for giving and receiving, and the closed hand is one of lack and holding on.
December 27, 2024
I think the portrayal of enoughness here was really moving in a spiritual way. I would have liked to see some more practical discussion.
“The word citizen means he or she who’s responsible for the state, he or she who’s responsible for the wellbeing of others and who’s responsible for the whole. Now we’re reduced from citizens to consumers. And when we think about that, that’s a very unattractive label for a human being, consumer. He or she who consumes or a consumer is he or she who takes, who depletes, who consumes, who diminishes.”
“And the ‘there’s not enough’, ‘we don’t have enough’, ‘I don’t have enough’ mentality ends up getting inside your soul almost where we start to think ‘I am not enough’. And that’s when it’s really devastating because people feel empty inside.”
“What are those life sentences, those decisions that have no wisdom in them but are only reactions? Now you’re trapped in them like they’re true.”
“When you let go of trying to get more of what you don't really need, which is what most of us are scrambling to get more of, it frees up oceans of energy to make a difference with what you have. When you make a difference with what you have, it expands.” (principle of sufficiency)
“And so sufficiency or enough is really this experience of gratefulness (great fullness) and it is the portal to abundance. You cannot get to abundance through the doorway of more. The doorway of more will only bring you lack and then the longing for more again. Which turns you into someone who has lack, who wants more again and on and on and on. The only route to true abundance is the exquisite distinction of sufficiency being met by the universe.”
“The word citizen means he or she who’s responsible for the state, he or she who’s responsible for the wellbeing of others and who’s responsible for the whole. Now we’re reduced from citizens to consumers. And when we think about that, that’s a very unattractive label for a human being, consumer. He or she who consumes or a consumer is he or she who takes, who depletes, who consumes, who diminishes.”
“And the ‘there’s not enough’, ‘we don’t have enough’, ‘I don’t have enough’ mentality ends up getting inside your soul almost where we start to think ‘I am not enough’. And that’s when it’s really devastating because people feel empty inside.”
“What are those life sentences, those decisions that have no wisdom in them but are only reactions? Now you’re trapped in them like they’re true.”
“When you let go of trying to get more of what you don't really need, which is what most of us are scrambling to get more of, it frees up oceans of energy to make a difference with what you have. When you make a difference with what you have, it expands.” (principle of sufficiency)
“And so sufficiency or enough is really this experience of gratefulness (great fullness) and it is the portal to abundance. You cannot get to abundance through the doorway of more. The doorway of more will only bring you lack and then the longing for more again. Which turns you into someone who has lack, who wants more again and on and on and on. The only route to true abundance is the exquisite distinction of sufficiency being met by the universe.”
February 25, 2022
Better as an audiobook. Also, large parts of it would be guided meditations.
That should be the disclaimer in the synopsis.
I was drawn to this after Ken Honda's Happy Money and was looking for soulful, money EQ content on our relationship of money and how it affects our daily lives.
I enjoyed most parts of it, though i recognised the guided meditations as part of CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy).
Her other book - The Soul of Money - elaborates more on this topic, but my biggest takeaway from this is the fallacy of Sufficiency. I noticed how i wake up perpetuating the cycle of not having enough, not being enough, and in recent days, have decided to break the pattern.
That in itself was powerful as the universe started mirroring it back to me.
Always having enough time to get to work, enough money to spend and pay my bills, enough energy to get the most important parts of my day done.
And as i start drilling it in, it was more than just the morning affirmation of "i am enough", but many, many oppportunities in my day i can practise it now.
That should be the disclaimer in the synopsis.
I was drawn to this after Ken Honda's Happy Money and was looking for soulful, money EQ content on our relationship of money and how it affects our daily lives.
I enjoyed most parts of it, though i recognised the guided meditations as part of CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy).
Her other book - The Soul of Money - elaborates more on this topic, but my biggest takeaway from this is the fallacy of Sufficiency. I noticed how i wake up perpetuating the cycle of not having enough, not being enough, and in recent days, have decided to break the pattern.
That in itself was powerful as the universe started mirroring it back to me.
Always having enough time to get to work, enough money to spend and pay my bills, enough energy to get the most important parts of my day done.
And as i start drilling it in, it was more than just the morning affirmation of "i am enough", but many, many oppportunities in my day i can practise it now.
July 16, 2024
Love some of these ideas and dislike others. Love the stories to inspire generosity and appreciation and the value of having less. I also appreciate the reminder that Americans are building tiny houses to hold their excess of things that don’t fit in their actual houses while there are human bodies who do not have homes. However, I did not like the constant refrain in this book that the universe will provide and that humans will always have enough - they don’t. When other humans hoard and build ideas that keep people in poverty, some people will never have enough no matter how they rely on positive thinking. Also, children and other adults who are not in control of their environments and rely on greedy or incapable adults, don’t have enough. The universe maybe gives freely but when people take what isn’t theirs, other people are left with too little and they die of hunger.
May 26, 2024
Radical truth. Actually more of an exercise to expose the lies of Scarcity, identify how they’ve infiltrated our lives and then let go and reset. The three myths of Scarcity: 1) There isn’t enough, 2) More is better, 3) It’s just the way it is. One of many profound examples used to illustrate our messed up thinking is the building of millions of storage units to hold more crap than our huge houses can’t handle while so many humans go homeless and even hungry every day. This scarcity mindset training began in our youth with seemingly innocent games like musical chairs, augmented today by reality television and consumerism culture based on the same model of vying for the last spot at any cost.
July 9, 2023
"Unleashing the Soul of Money" by Lynn Twist is an enchanting journey into the mysterious depths of our relationship with money. With graceful prose and a touch of wit, Twist weaves together profound insights and practical wisdom, reminding us that money is not merely a transactional tool, but a reflection of our values and connection to the world. Her exploration of scarcity and sufficiency invites us to reconsider our money mindset, challenging conventional notions with a twinkle in her eye. A delightful read that will leave you both pondering the mysteries of wealth and chuckling at the absurdity of it all.
- This book review was expertly assembled with the aid of AI.
- This book review was expertly assembled with the aid of AI.
October 16, 2019
Not what I expected, but very insightful. A quick 2 hour audiobook with insights then guided meditations to remind us that we already have enough. We do! We gotta stop focusing on what we lack! This is a serious cultural problem. The part about the growth of storage companies blew my mind. Why are we paying for buildings to store crap that we don't have room for in our big houses?!? And I loved how she reminded me of all the people who helped bring food to my table. Quite a list of people to be grateful for. My favorite quote: "What you appreciate appreciates."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2019
I have listened to Lynne Twist’s Audible version of her philosophy on the power of money and capitalism many times because money was a prime mover in my family. Trying to determine if you have succeeded in life started for me in my 60’s. Her experiences as a fundraising for non-profit swayed my thinking toward understanding the value of money and the people on sharing the earth’s bounties equally. Is greed taught to everyone on daily basis? Are we constantly bombarded with desires for more stuff? I was and the Author presented a different way to see my role in helping others.
December 15, 2019
Workshop version of her book. Better to get the book. The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life
September 23, 2020
The philosophy of this book is to overcome a scarcity mindset that drives our society and affects us individually. It gave me lots to think about for my own relationship with money and the influences that shape our outlook.
This audiobook is great: I liked the author's voice, it's only 3 hours long and has two meditations/journaling exercises to work with one's relationship with money.
This audiobook is great: I liked the author's voice, it's only 3 hours long and has two meditations/journaling exercises to work with one's relationship with money.
November 2, 2017
I didn’t find the guided meditations to be terribly productive, but I do love a lot of what Lynne has to say in this book. I especially like the concept of our money as a conduit for our love, and this idea will help me on my minimalist path.
July 24, 2020
A quick review of the material covered in "The Soul of Money" by the same author, along with some guided meditations in the same vein. Enjoyable as a compliment to the book, but neither a replacement or a necessary accompaniment.
February 23, 2021
Really enjoyed the initial thoughts on the myths of 1. Scarcity in society 2. More is better 3. That’s just the way it is.
The rest was basically a meditation that was good but I may have needed to take more seriously.
The rest was basically a meditation that was good but I may have needed to take more seriously.
September 6, 2021
Not what I expected. Though I don’t know what I expected, it wasn’t a 2.5 hour guided meditation through a socialist/hippy/ activists view of getting rid of all our unneeded possessions. Not digging those that like this kind of thing, just not my thing, ya know?
November 26, 2021
I read this after hearing Brene Brown mention it and didn't read summary beforehand. There's some good info in here that we should keep in mind. I wasn't expecting the meditations but that's on me for not reading the summary.
May 1, 2025
I enjoyed this book. I came to it from a meditation coach and it fit well in that context. if you're wondering about how to get in the right mindset to live a grateful and generous life, this will work great. If you want practical money strategies, this is not it.
February 7, 2018
Not what I thought it would be.
February 11, 2020
The book helps you meditate and feel the flow of your life with regards to money. Not my cup of tea, but it would probably be great for some people.
March 30, 2020
I struggled to get through some parts of this. There’s nothing wrong with the premise per se, but there’s a bit of name dropping. As a person with significant experience in the nonprofit sector, I didn’t appreciate how the author frequently referred back to her fundraising background as a way to establish authority/credibility. It just didn’t resonate for me.
June 29, 2020
Pretty superficial treatment of money management.
October 14, 2020
The message was great and found value in her three lies about money but most of the book was a meditation—not bad per say just different!
November 9, 2020
So great for taking away the emotional charge and adrenaline away from money transactions. It replaces the charge with a purpose for good. Really cool.
February 25, 2021
This is one of the most important books a person should read in their life. I wish I had done it when I was younger.
May 29, 2022
Brief lecture and guided meditations. I enjoyed both and found them insightful. Author / narrator has a rather soothing voice
June 1, 2022
Really valuable insights here in this book, can be quality of life-changing.
May 1, 2023
Full of wisdom and soul. I will listen again for sure.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews